Our members

Barbara von Rütte is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the Max-Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity. Prior to this she has completed her PhD at the University of Bern within the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research NCCR - on the move. Her doctoral and postdoctoral research focuses on the regulation of nationality in international law, in particular the right to nationality. Her broader research interests include questions relating to citizenship law and theory as well as statelessness, Swiss nationality law, legal identity, and the administrative detention of migrants both from a constitutional law as well as a human rights perspective. Since 2020 she is a member of the Swiss Federal Commission on Migration and serves as a book review editor for the Statelessness and Citizenship review. Until 2019 she also served as a consultant for the Council of Europe on the committee of experts on administrative detention of migrants (CJ-DAM).

Before starting a Ph.D. in Political Theory at the University of Edinburgh, I took an M.A. in International Studies at Seoul National University, and a B.A. in Philosophy and Business Studies at the University of Mannheim. In 2012, I was an exchange student at the Kyoto University of Foreign Studies. Since 2019, I've been a co-chair of the “Normative Theory of Immigration Working Group” which is an international collective of scholars working at the intersections of migration studies, policy studies, and political theory. Moreover,

The Bhutanese Welfare Association (BWA) is a non-profit organisation established on 27th July 2011. It was established by a group of Bhutanese people within the UK to bring all Bhutanese together to nurture, facilitate, empower and promote Bhutan’s culture, and to aid the population in the development of the skills that are essential for establishing a new life in the United Kingdom. The mission of BWA is to ensure the development of support services that will enable the Bhutanese people to improve their standard of living and increase their self-worth, independence, and autonomy.
BWA’s methods for facilitating the growth of Bhutanese culture, social integration and personal development of individuals includes various activities, programs and guidance. It is an invaluable resource for all Bhutanese to discover their strength and potential to thrive at the start of a new life in a new country, by successfully adjusting to English culture while also retaining their own traditions. 

The Bradford Rohingya community was created in 2008 and later became the British Rohingya Community. We are based in Bradford in the UK and our team consists of members from the Rohingya population that have come to the UK through the UNCHR and Home office Gateway Protection UK. We campaign to ensure members of the Rohingya community in Burma have their human rights realised and are able to live equally and without fear. Our team is also dedicated to raising awareness and increasing media attention towards the plight of the Rohingya in Burma. 

Cecilia Manzotti is a PhD researcher at the School of Law, Politics and Sociology of the University of Sussex. Her research focuses on the determination of the nationality status of asylum seekers and refugees, including their possible statelessness, in Europe. Previously, she worked in refugee status determination, first as a legal advisor with Africa and Middle Refugee Assistance (AMERA) in Cairo, and later as a decision-maker with UNHCR in Egypt, Turkey and Italy. Cecilia also worked in wider refugee protection, and more recently served as a consultant with UNHCR in Guinea, focusing on statelessness. Moreover, she conducted research on migrant smuggling and trafficking in persons with UNODC and contributed to UNODC publications on these topics.

The Civil Rights Project Sisak (CRP Sisak) is a non-governmental, apolitical, non-profit, humantitarian organisation that works in Croatia. The goal of the organisation is providing humanitarian aid to refugees, returnees, IDPs, socially vulnerable persons, as well as the promotion and protection of human rights and values of all citizens regarding the development and strengthening of democracy and humanism, protection and affirmation of human, civil and political rights.

Clara Van Thillo is a PhD researcher and teaching assistant in international law at the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies, KU Leuven. She is also a visiting teaching assistant at the University of Hasselt. At the Centre, Clara pursues a PhD on the role that UNHCR plays in the development of the international legal framework on statelessness under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Jan Wouters. 
Prior to joining the Centre, she worked as an intern at the General Representative of the Government of Flanders to the United Nations in Geneva. She holds a Master of Laws degree, which she obtained from KU Leuven in 2021. Her Master’s thesis examined the prosecution of sexual violence against the stateless Rohingya in Myanmar before the International Criminal Court. She also studied one semester at the University of Barcelona in 2019.

Comissio Catalana d' Ajuda al Refugiat (CCAR) is a non-governmental organisation founded in 2014. It is an independent organisation associated to the Spanish Commission for Refugees (CEAR). CCAR was born with the purpose of approaching and ensuring international mandates in Catalonia to protect those who seek asylum and other forms of protection, among them stateless persons. Moreover, it was founded to veil for the correct application of the 1951 Geneva Convention and other national and international norms addressed to asylum seekers. Our foundation goals are the protection of the right to asylum and refugees' rights, as well as the protection of immigrants' rights.  At the same time, we work in order to foster the social cohesion of refugees.

Conselho Português para os Refugiados (CPR) is a non-governmental organisation created in 1991. It works to uphold the rights of seekers and beneficiaries of international protection in Portugal and to promote the quality of the national asylum system. Within its mandate, CPR provides direct, free and independent legal, social and integration assistance to applicants and beneficiaries of international protection in the country. CPR also develops extensive advocacy, policy, awareness-raising and training activities, and is recognised by the Portuguese Asylum Act as an integral part of the national asylum system. Through its work, CPR also aims to promote knowledge on statelessness and adequate protection of stateless persons in Portugal.

Denis started his career in the Refugee-Law-Clinic Bochum, as a legal consultant. He is the author of several articles published by the Human Rights League of France. Denis has been a delegate for ELSA international NGO in the committee on enforced disappearances. He graduated from the Strasbourg University as a Master of fundamental Rights. Since then he is pursuing his second Master degree in Human Rights and international humanitarian law at the Pantheon-Assas university in Paris.